In 1981, two students at Columbia University hired a young New York theater
actor and set out to make a 1950s biker flick that was clearly intended as a
homage to both László Benedek's The Wild One and Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising.
The students were Kathryn Bigelow and Monty Montgomery, the actor was Willem
Dafoe in his first credited movie role, and the film is concerned with leather
and chrome much more than with plot or dialogue. It's a thoroughly deserved
triumph of style over substance, and while it would be somewhat pretentious
to call this a cult classic, it's definitely way more than just a curiosity.